Minneapolis, Minn. – Today, General Mills joined Vice President Joe Biden, Senior Administration officials, and leaders from Federal agencies, U.S. businesses, science and technology and environmental organizations to participate in cross-sector discussions on domestic and international climate efforts at the White House.

The event, titled White House Summit on Climate and Road through Paris: Business & Science Comes Together, highlighted the integral role that businesses play in leading local, national, and international climate efforts and what improvements can be made in critical areas such as mitigation and resilience. Participants also discussed how to further engage and organize in support of the upcoming COP21 Paris climate negotiations.

In correlation with today’s event, General Mills signed on to American Business Act on Climate Pledge, joining more than 80 companies from across the American economy to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to climate action and to voice support for a strong outcome to the COP21 Paris climate negotiations.

During his remarks at the event, Biden applauded American businesses for their leadership and commitments to addressing climate change, noting: “We have to lead not just by the example of our power by the power of our example.”

As a signatory of the pledge, General Mills reaffirmed its recent announcement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across it full value chain – from farm to fork to landfill – by 28 percent by 2025.

General Mills notes in its pledge: “We believe that by advancing our commitment now, we have an opportunity to encourage others to do the same, establish new partnerships, and together, make real progress towards more sustainable emission levels for our planet and future generations.”

General Mills’ climate commitment was calculated using science-based methodology. Meaning, the 28 percent reduction goal aligns with what today’s science suggests is necessary to sustain the health of the planet.

The company’s long term aspiration is to achieve sustainable emission levels in line with scientific consensus by 2050. As outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientific consensus suggests a reduction of 50-70 percent in absolute emissions by 2050.

“Climate change is a shared, global challenge that is best addressed at scale,” said Ken Powell, chairman and CEO of General Mills. “To reduce emission levels, we must work across our collective value chains to identify new solutions and promote sustainable business practices that drive emission reductions, climate resiliency and sustainability.”